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Friday, November 30, 2012

Haven't played over at Less is More for awhile, and I find it ironic that the challenge this week is "Glamour and Glitz". As in, keep it to a bare minimum but glam it up!

When I saw the sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch #7 it totally reminded me of a design I did on this card. So I cased myself. Used some metallic CS and gold and silver to glam it up for a wedding/anniversary card.

Monday, November 26, 2012

Turquoise and yellow - that's what the new challenge blog "Keep it Simple" wants. See why?

Had an idea to use some washi and do some die cutting. Lucky I have "several" yellow washi tapes...

Channeling my inner Cristina K., I tried my darndest to keep this a single-layer card but give it lots of interest!

Adhered washi to scrap paper and die cut butterfly. Die cut turquoise oval and oval out of white panel. Die cut butterfly from the turquoise oval and stamped it with some chevrons - for interest. Put the puzzle pieces back together, leaving the wing tips and antennae unglued - for a bit more interest. Stamped sentiment with a shadow - even more interest? - and couldn't resist a few sequins. Still one-layer, still mailable ;)

Sunday, November 25, 2012

You might have heard me say that since Germany doesn't recognize Thanksgiving, we have our own Turkey Day. Usually on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Yes, that means today. And usually inviting either Americans, or Germans who have lived in the US - figure they appreciate the whole celebration a bit more.

Note: Not to mislead you. Germans totally appreciate a yummy meal. Even my godson, who now over 20, still loves to come for Turkey Day. And especially the sweet potatoes. This, a kid who when he was little, would not eat anything green (as in, vegetable). Once when we were babysitting him he projectiled his baby food spinach across our living room!

This year we are 14 people. We have an open kitchen/dining area and although dinner is buffet style, I usually make placecards. (Because I like to pre-arrange the seating but mostly cuz it's an excuse to make something creative!)

So I challenged myself - as if in addition to a turkey and ham and all the other sides given the small ovens we have over here I needed another challenge (breathe, Maria) - to play some challenges with my placecards. My XXS placecards, I should say. Warning: went a bit non-traditional with my colors this year.

I did use Thanksgiving inchie stamps! Just changed up the colors a bit. Motivated by my choice of table decorations.

This was a "morning of" photo. If I remember to take a shot of the set table I'll post it later...

Paper Crafts Connection - November gallery challenge to use decorative tape. I'd intended to stamp the strip behind the focal image, but then remembered my red/white striped washi. And the whole time I was struggling with how I was going to hang them on the wine glasses... Duh! Use washi tape and stick'em on the water glasses. There are still a couple under-agers and they don't get wine glasses anyhow. And it fits my non-traditional take on Turkey Day this year too!

Saturday, November 24, 2012

My last two cards for the Caring Hearts card drive. I had bought some wooden ornaments and knew I wanted to incorporate them on a card for the nursing home. But how? Along comes Miss Card Technique herself, Jennifer McGuire posting an oh-so-cool technique over at Paper Crafts Connection.

Hope you're still reading cuz this is where I give a big virtual hug to my followers. I missed out on the chance to greet you all by name (like Darnell does, have you seen that?) Let me just say I am 1) amazed that you are here and 2) so appreciative of your lovely comments. I have a few of the wooden ornaments left over and would like to share them with you, my followers.

If you'd like these, please leave me a comment. I would love to know from you if you've sold your handmade cards, where? (shop, fair, etsy) and which type of card (CAS, fancy, mailable) sells best. I've only sold a few to friends but my stash is growing. Of cards and supplies that is. Thus the idea to perhaps sell more...

Please comment before Dec 1. DD will pick a number and I'll send these ornaments off to the winner!

Friday, November 23, 2012

No Black Friday for me, but here are two cards using some midnight blue. Heat embossed the snowflakes onto CS and then die cut it, making two panels for the two cards. At times like these I wish I had more PTI dies, but I made do with a Spellbinders shape.

I love how this sentiment seems to tuck right into the curve of the die cut piece. As for the "curtain" of sheer ribbon scrap ... not sure what possessed me to put it there but I couldn't leave it off once I had considered it! Just a little touch of color with the red gem.

Here I used part of the negative die cut, a strip of PP and a strip of washi over it. A little bow to bring out the green from the PP and a sentiment in gold. Actually followed the Freshly Made Sketch #61 for this. Really like the sketch - but I'm too late to the party.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Although today I'm really missing my family in the US, I've got plenty to be thankful for. My family here. Our health. Good eats to come our way when we celebrate on Sunday. And on the cardmaking side... stamps sets won from generous online stores. And that oh-so-teensy-Christmas-light-stamp-nestled-in-between-others on one of the zillion stamp sets in my stash. Whuddathunkit?

What the heck am I talking about? Meet this CAS-color-me-happy Christmas card.

Wanted to use this stamp from the set I won at JayGee's Nook to send Judith G. holiday wishes. Wanted to stick to B/W and just color the string of lights on the house. Also wanted to use this sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch #6:

Feared that using PP behind the focal image would be too much for the outline image. Thought about a dry embossed panel. Then something (who knows what) made me peruse my holiday stamps and sure enough, there on that tiny Hero Arts robot stamp there was this single light. Problem solved! Hand drew the strings, stamped the lights and colored them in. Just a bit of glitter on the snowcovered roof and a touch of twine... I'm likin' the result. Here's a second version.

It was actually a wonderful, jam-packed weekend. Without kids. Nuff said!

So we had two birthday parties to go to and of course I decided that my neighbor was going to get a pack of handmade Christmas cards as a gift. And of course I waited til the last minute to make them. And of course it was too dark to photograph them when I finished (barely had time to jump in the shower before heading out the door.) When will I learn?

I made two of my maruschka design card with different color combos. Turquoise and pink and orange for one. And turquoise and purple and yellow for another. But alas, no photos to share.

I will share these two with you. Just changed the bling a bit from my original card. These are going out to Vera Y.'s Caring Hearts Card Drive. My grandma was in a nursing home for several years when I was little and I saw how happy some residents were to receive any kind of attention. So I'm joining in this year.

And who knows, maybe some residents will be of German descent!

Happy Thanksgiving week to you all. We are celebrating on Sunday since Germany doesn't have the holiday like the US. Guests are invited. Now it's time to start list making and shopping.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Ever since I saw this inspiration board at The Creative Paper Trade, I had a particular Hero Arts stamp in mind. Finally got around to playing with it. Twice.

The stamp is a floral heart. The heart made of spools immediately reminded me of it. I also decided to use the colors from the waterfall photo - ranging from orange on top to green leaves on the bottom with a touch of the light blue water.

I heat embossed the image first. Then colored it using Distress Inks and a waterbrush. Then I removed the heat embossing! using an iron and thin kraft paper. The result is an incredibly soft and smooth batik look. It is really a cool technique. Check out Tim's tutorial here.

To pick up the circles element of the inspiration board I heat embossed a few circles on my cardbase and used a sentiment featuring circles. Also mounted the heart on vellum, though that's hard to see.

Then I thought maybe I would stamp the image with ink and color it with colored pencils. But I got detoured along the way when I saw the black image on white and decided to go with it. Adhered it with washi pieces to a black panel framed haphazardly with lines from a Cutter Bee piercing tool. Three simple gems and voila.

Probably 99% of you see the rolled felt flowers. And me? I see the twiggy wreath and those wonderful berries. Meet my card.

That wreath stamp from Papertrey was the first item ever to go into my shopping cart. I gave it a triple dose of berries - in orange, green and then Versamark with red pepper embossing powder. You can see the shine on the small photo uptop. Used decorative edged scissors to cut it out and mounted it on a felt circle.

I heat embossed the dolls and then colored with water-based markers. Not thrilled with the result. I think the images are too small to use this technique. But I wanted a little more texture than just stamped with ink. Added a few extra dots of color with colored pencils - on the cheeks and bellies.

СПАСИБО (that's thank you in Russian if my source is right) for visiting.

Monday, November 12, 2012

This one flowed. Like Welch's grape juice. Mixed with raspberry Kool-Aid.

Must admit I've been a bit stumped by the jeweled tone color choices over at The Play Date Cafe lately. But put together with the CASual Fridays "so torn" challenge and this washi tape card by Christine, not to mention this PP pack which basically made my life easy (don't ya love it when that happens?), I was able to put my own twist on the jeweled tones. Elegant, nay. But me.